Wait. Did I just read that correctly?

Hello, Jason and Steve,

The visa has been approved. Please check with the Mission.

For the last year, fellow Gogodala Project missionaries Steve and Laurie Erickson have been lending their cumulative experience to help my family and me through the process of acquiring our visa applications. Yet so many of these visa-related emails have been disappointing. Could this email really mean that today is the day we get a green light? (Yes, indeed!)

Now we must get the paperwork to Washington, DC, in time for the embassy to put visa stickers into our passports. We must also get everyone decently dressed and groomed to take visa pictures, then have them printed. Thankfully, Claudia Roedell, our Human Resources Secretary, is making sure all our application paperwork is in order and matching the five applications with the photographs and passports.

Since everything has taken longer than expected up to this point, we were prepared for at least a couple of weeks of waiting. However, fast forward four days, and our passports, complete with beautiful yellow visa stickers, were on our doorstep.

Wow, Lord, we are in the fast lane now. Days are full of urgent emails, packing, sorting, making lists and checking them. Now we are guessing how much time we have until the next approval comes and we can actually purchase tickets. Praise God for opportunities to learn how to stay in step with Him as He leads us through the twists and turns of His wonderful plan.

We cannot thank you enough for your continued prayers, as they have been a constant source of encouragement and the engine that keeps moving us toward the mission field. Thank you for believing God’s calling for our lives, even though this process has taken longer than anyone expected. We wish we could give each of you a hug of thanks, but that will probably have to wait because we will soon be bound for PNG.

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